John 21:15-22

¹⁵ After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”“Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.¹⁶ Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?”“Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.”“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.¹⁷ A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.¹⁸ “I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” ¹⁹ Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”²⁰ Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved—the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, “Lord, who will betray you?” ²¹ Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?”²² Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

As we continue in John chapter 21 we see how the Risen Savior not only has the power to deal with ourdoubts and our disappointments but also our disgrace. You see Jesus doesn’t just handle our fears but also our failures. It’s here that Jesus not only shows us forgiveness but gives us an example to follow as He not only confronts and forgives Peters failure, but He calls and commissions Peter to faithfully follow and to feed His flock. It’s here in Johnthat we see three calls from Christ, the first is to:

1. Love Lavishly

After breakfast is over, Jesus publicly forgives and reinstates Peter. This doesn’t just benefit Peter it provides us with a practical plan on how we should forgive. People are watching and how Jesus handles Peters failure provides them with a blueprint of forgiveness. There on the beach after breakfast as Peter smells the fire and feels its heat, he is probably reminded of how he warmed himself next to the fire in the courtyard right before he denied Jesus three times. Instead of making a statement Jesus asks Peter a personal question. Now there are a lot of things that Jesus could have said to Peter. He could have responded with rebuke and retribution. He could have treated him with silence and given him the cold shoulder. He could have said, “You know, Peter, normally I would have asked you to feed my sheep but…I just don’t trust you anymore.” He could have brought up Peters failure and flung it in his face. He could have talked to the other disciples about it, but He chose to talk to Peter not about Peter. When Jesus sat down with Peter, He didn’t condemn him or insult him or reject him. Instead Jesus invited Peter to sit and eat with Him and then Jesus asks Peter a question 3 times: do you love me?” Why would Jesus ask Peter the same question 3 times? Well it’s worth noting that this is not the only time Jesus had to repeat Himself 3 times in Peters life. In Acts 10 when God calls Peter to preach to the Gentiles He has to send the same vision to Peter three times before Peter responded. Jesus could have asked Peter anything, He could have done some teaching, or told a parable, but He chose to ascertain Peters love level. Because if you don’t love Jesus nothing else matters. You see in Matthew 22:37 when Jesus summarized the entire list of laws in the Old Testament He quoted Deuteronomy 6:5: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”as the premier commandment. Now while this conversation was in Aramaic, John records and reveals it to us in Greek, which has three primary and very different words for love. One refers to romantic love and is not used here while the other two terms are. The first is agapao, unconditional love, used to describe wholehearted devotion. It’s the kind of love that is spelled out in 1 Corinthians 13:7-8: “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”The other form of love that is used is phileo, brotherly love, a fondness that is found among friends. It’s the word we would use when we say that we “like” someone. You see in the first and second questions, Jesus uses the word agapao: “Peter, is your love unfailing? Does it persevere? Is it selfless?” Jesus cuts to the core because He is asking Peter if he still believed that his devotion was deeper than the other disciples: “do you love me more than these?” Notice that Peter doesn’t even attempt an answer to this part of the question because he knows that he doesn’t even come close to unconditional love. Peter is honest and uncharacteristically humble in his response you see it is through his failure that Peter begins to realize that he has a fickle heart. It’s when we face our failures and stop faking it that we discover our frailty and His faithfulness. It’s here that Peter discovers his and our greatest problem, pride. But Peter didn’t just discover the problem he discovered the solution dependence on the Savior. King David never thought he would commit adultery and murder, Solomon didn’t think he would ever engage in idolatry, Moses hadn’t planned on killing someone, Jonah didn’t think he’d ever run away, and Peter couldn’t imagine that he would deny his Lord. We are all prone to pride that is why we need to be vigilant and be on guard just as 1 Corinthians 10:12 reminds us: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” Like Peter we need to learn to be honest with the Lord. While he refers to Him as “Lord” in all three of his responses, Peter could no longer promise uncompromising devotion. He wished he could say that he loved Jesus, but instead he says he likes the Lord. That is why when Jesus asks the third question in verse 17, he uses the term for brotherly love. Jesus is basically saying, “Peter, do you have affection for me? This hurt Peter because Jesus was coming down to his level. You see the tears that flowed after Peter denial Jesus and he went outside and wept bitterly are now starting to fall down his face once again. Repentance is painful, our sin leads to sorrow as Hebrews 12:11 reminds us: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”Repentance without pain is not repentance its regret and the reason why many of us never change is because while we have regret over our sin we don’t have repentance. We are sorry we got caught but are we sorry over the sin? What about you, do you love God lavishly? What is the depth of your devotion? Are you completely committed to Him? If not, admit it. Put into words where you are really at with Jesus. When you do, Jesus will not only meet you where you are, but He will bring you to where you need to be. Notice that in all three responses, Peter affirms that Jesus “knows.” He knows what, the worst about him and still loves him. When we’re that honest Jesus can restoring our relationship so that we can once again become a devoted disciple. Through the repetition of the same question, Jesus is revealing the depth of Peter’s repentance. What about you, what do you value most in life? Possessions? Power, position? Is there anything or anyone you are loving more than you love the Lord?

John 21:1-14

Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. ² Several of the disciples were there—Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. ³ Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.”“We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night.⁴ At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was. ⁵ He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?”“No,” they replied.⁶ Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.⁷ Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. ⁸ The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards from shore. ⁹ When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them—fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread.¹⁰ “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus said. ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn’t torn.¹² “Now come and have some breakfast!” Jesus said. None of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish. ¹⁴ This was the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead.

It’s here in the depths of his disappointment when Peter can’t even fish without failing that the Mandate results in a:

4. Miracle Vs 6

The question becomes do you want to live in the miracle or in the mess, because miracles come when we obey God’s mandates. There were really 2 miracles, the first was a net full of fish but second was that Jesus not only blessed them with a bounty of fish, but He did it without breaking their nets. God’s miracles fill our lives they don’t fray them. You see we have a God who can bless without breaking. Much has been made of the number of fish that were caught 153, but instead of speculating let’s look at the obvious lesson, when God moves it results in a miracle and we can experience a bounty of blessing. Where we fail God can fill. It’s not about the number of fish it’s about the faithfulness of the Father. We have a God that goes beyond. As I already mentioned Jesus had done this exact miracle once before. So, the question becomes why would Jesus do this a 2nd time? The first time it got their attention and convinced them following Christ and we could say Jesus was trying to convince them to once again stop fishing and start following. But if you look at the first time Jesus performed this miracle you will see Peter’s powerful response to the Savior: “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’”(Luke 5:8) When Peter saw the miraculous Messiah he saw his mess. You can’t see the Savior without seeing your sin. The first time Peter realize he was a sinful man, and now Jesus has done that same miracle all over again all because Peter ALREADY believes he’s a sinful man. And not just a sinful man… but an empty, useless, worthless man. Peter needed something only the Savior could give, he didn’t need a feel-good Peter needed forgiveness. We see our sins but instead of seeking the Savior we deal with sin in the strangest ways. Some try to deal with their sin by trying to hide it behind good deeds. That’s what we call karma. Karma is the belief that if you do enough good stuff in your life you can cover up the bad stuff. Instead of trusting in Christ Peter trusted Karma. He worked at being more righteous than the ones around him. When Jesus said the disciples would betray Him Peter said, “Even though THEY all fall away, I will not.” Why would he say that? Because he believed he was more righteous than they were. He tried to impress Jesus with his superior righteousness, so Christ wouldn’t see the dark struggles and doubts that lay just beneath the surface. He was trying to hide his sinfulness behind the fact that he could be more righteous than others. Self-righteousness and self-reliance go hand in hand, they both depend on me not the Messiah. Instead of trusting Jesus we spend our lives trying, instead of leaning on the Lord we spend our lives trying to look better. Self-righteousness gets us to focus on our success and others sins. It causes us to compare and to compete. It’s like the 2 men who get chased by a bear one stops to sit on a stump and put on running shoes. “Are you crazy?” says the 2nd man. “You can’t outrun that bear?” “I Don’t have to outrun the bear,” said the 1st man. “All I have to do is outrun you.” They think that if you can “out-righteous” the next guy (religiously out-run them) then God will pay more attention to the other guy’s sin instead of yours. The only problem is you can’t out run that bear. Unless your sinfulness is removed you can out-run/out-righteous anyone you want to… but the bear is still there. Your sin WILL catch up with you and kill you. While some people try to deal with their sin, by hiding it behind good deeds others try to hide THEMSELVES. That’s what Peter tried to do, he went back to his fishing so that he didn’t have to face Jesus again. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden who tried to hide their guilt from God, but you can’t hide from God. While Peter won’t come to Christ and confess, Christ comes to Him. Trying to hide or be a self-righteous hypocrite doesn’t work, what we need to do is rush to the Redeemer. When Peter realizes that its Jesus he jumps in and heads for shore. Peter forgets about his failure and even the fish because His focus is now on Jesus. It’s here that we discover the:

5. Message Vs 7-14

What we need is Jesus and it’s time to get out of the boat and go to God. The Master is more important than the miracle. The purpose of the miracle is to point us to the Messiah. So often we get caught up in the miracle instead of the Messiah and we end up focusing on the fish instead of Christ’s faithfulness. But when we come to Christ like Peter we will discover that our disappointments don’t limit the Lord. Your messes don’t minimize God. Because when we come to Christ we go from failure to fellowship, from brokenness to breakfast. Are you hurting and floundering in your failure then come to Jesus and let Him and heal your broken heart.